


An Alternative

by Aria_Lerendeair



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, College!AU, Douche Michael, Insecure Gabriel, M/M, cuteness, fake marriage!au, human!AU, sap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-15
Updated: 2016-07-15
Packaged: 2018-07-24 06:42:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7498116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aria_Lerendeair/pseuds/Aria_Lerendeair
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam can't figure out his housing for next semester and it's looking like he might have to drop out so he can get things sorted.  Gabriel gives him another alternative.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Alternative

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SammySammyDean](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SammySammyDean/gifts).



> Birthday present for Samm now being cross-posted to AO3!!

  
  
  
Gabriel knew this was a spectacularly bad idea. In the history of bad ideas, this was definitely going to go down as one of the worst, and later, in his future, when his future self came back to tell him what a fucking idiot he was, he would deserve it.

  
But he didn't have a choice, and that was probably the worst thing of all. He couldn't let Sam go without a place to stay this entire semester. He took a deep breath and knocked on the door to Ash's apartment. Sam was staying there for a few days until he 'figured things out', which Gabriel was pretty damn certain was code for 'figure out how much it would cost him to drop out'.

  
Sam opened the door and Gabriel could read the defeat in Sam's posture and if he were taller, he would have swept Sam up into the world's biggest hug. As it was, he stepped closer and wrapped his arms around Sam's waist, hugging him tight.

  
"Oof, Gabriel?"

  
Gabriel took a deep breath and told himself that he needed to man up. Because this was for Sam, and for Sam, well, he would be willing to do just about anything. Including get fake-married.

  
"So," he began, pulling back, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "Can I come in for a few? I have an idea that might help with what's going on right now."

  
It was a testament to how bad Sam thought things were that he didn't even brighten, he just held the door open and Gabriel stepped in and under Sam's arm, wrinkling his nose. He didn't mind how much Ash smoked, but sometimes he didn't want to walk into a cloud of smoke.

  
"Come on," Sam said, leading the way down the hallway. "I've got the pullout in his computer room."

  
Gabriel followed behind Sam, his resolve strengthening every second. Sam's shoulders were hunched, and he could tell that Sam was ready to just give up, not because he wanted to give up, but because other than living on the streets, he didn't have another option. All it took was the sight of the twin size pullout and a glance to Sam's hunched frame and Gabriel was back to being one hundred percent certain in his decision.

  
"So," Sam said, sitting on the edge of the bed, gesturing to the computer chair in front of him. "You said you had an idea? I'm certainly out of them, so I'll take anything you've got at this point."

  
Gabriel nodded and cleared his throat, taking another deep breath. "Yeah. It'll give you a place to live, all semester. And you wouldn't have to pay a dime."

  
Sam laughed, rolling his eyes. "Sounds too good to be true. What's the catch?"

  
It was now or never. Gabriel lifted his head and stared at Sam, straight in the eye. "You have to marry me."

  
Sam blinked at him, once, twice, and then burst out laughing.

  
Gabriel ducked his head down so Sam wouldn't see the hurt on his face and took a deep breath. "Look, I know it isn't ideal, and if I could let you live with me, without getting married, I would. But my father has these weird fucking rules and this is the only way that I have found to get around them."

  
Sam immediately went quiet and stared at Gabriel. "You're...you're serious?"

  
Gabriel swallowed hard and nodded, staring at Sam. "Yeah. I'm very serious. I just." He looked down at his hands. "Please understand, Sam. I know that you wouldn't take the money if I threw it at you, and short of that, this is what I have to offer."

  
Sam snapped his mouth shut and stared at Gabriel. He sighed and his shoulders slumped. "Gabriel, I can't let you get married to me. I mean, I've got nothing, your parents would know it was a farce."

  
Gabriel sighed. "I don't give a shit about them knowing whether it was a farce. Frankly, they would take one look at you, judge you based on your looks, chalk it up to another of my terrible decisions, and make sure I signed a prenup first."

  
Sam winced. "They sound like real winners."

  
"They are," Gabriel said, smiling a little as he looked up at Sam. "Look, I know we're not, exactly, best friends, Sam. But I'd like to think we are at _least_  friends."

  
Sam nodded. "Yeah. We are."

  
Gabriel let out a breath that he didn't know he was holding. "Okay. Then let me help you. You, you buy yourself some time to figure out another option."

  
"And what about you, Gabriel," Sam asked, looking up at the other man. "What do you get out of this? You'll have me living in your apartment for a semester, maybe even a full year. Why, what the hell do you get out of it?"

  
Gabriel bit down on his lower lip. He got the chance to be around the person he had a crush on, nearly twenty-four seven. It was going to be the best and worst kind of torture. He was an idiot. "I get a chance to help you," he said, looking up at Sam. "So let me, okay?"

  
Sam asked for a day to think about it, but in the end, it was either accept Gabriel's offer, or drop out.

  
They drove up to Oregon together the next weekend. It didn't take them long to get a marriage license, or to be married in a quiet civil ceremony, in a town that Gabriel couldn't even remember the name of. Sam had kissed him, quick and soft and gentle, his hands wrapped up in Sam's, and Gabriel had been certain that Sam could hear how loudly his heart was pounding.

  
The drive home was almost silent and Gabriel hated it.

  
Going to pick up Sam's things from Garth's was even worse. He brought two duffle bags out of the apartment, and his laptop bag and Gabriel blurted "that's it?" before Sam winced and loaded the bags into the trunk of Gabriel's car.

  
Gabriel cursed himself for being an insensitive asshole and drove them to his apartment in more silence.

  
~!~

  
It took a few days, but things settled between them pretty easily. Sam went out of his way to be quiet, and to not even look like he lived in the apartment (hadn't even bothered to unpack either of his duffle bags yet). It wasn't until Gabriel snapped and told Sam to act like he fucking lived here, and they had a huge shouting match that Sam agreed to relax.

  
Piece by piece, the Sam he knew started appearing again. The duffle bags were unpacked and put away. Sam's clothes were in his dresser. A few posters had made their way onto the walls, looking worn and folded, but they were there. Sam had CDs and his laptop on the desk. Gabriel relaxed at the sight, because maybe, maybe Sam was starting to treat this like home.

  
They both took to playing video games on weekends, when Sam wasn't working himself to the bone trying to earn money to 'figure something else out'. Gabriel usually pointed out to Sam that anywhere else Sam could move would be a downgrade, and he wouldn't have gaming systems handy. That usually got Sam to at least smile and stop worrying about money for a little while.

  
After that, well, things weren't easy, but things were good. Sam started talking to him, little by little, and Gabriel knew he was in trouble. He'd been crushing on Sam for ages, but now, now that he knew more about Sam (and how fucking hot he was walking out of the damn shower, which he had been jerking off to for _weeks_ ), and how sweet Sam was and how much he wanted to do things for others? Well. He was in deep. Deep, deep shit, and there was no sign of him ever recovering when Sam got his shit in order and was able to apply for proper housing next year.

  
They'd just get divorced, go their merry ways and Gabriel would spend the rest of his life nursing a broken heart. But at least Sam hadn't remembered what he had let slip about the prenup. So when they did inevitably break up and divorce, Sam would get half of his inheritance. He'd never want for anything again. Gabriel hung his head and clenched his eyes shut. It was the least he could do for Sam. The least.

  
"Gabriel?" Sam called.

  
Gabriel's head snapped up and he grinned at Sam. "So someone has finally emerged from their cave of studying. Want to eat?"

  
Sam smiled. "Yeah, that'd be great. You okay?"

  
"Yeah, Samoose, why?" Gabriel asked, tilting his head.

  
Sam frowned a little. "You looked..." he shook his head. "Nevermind. Let's eat."

  
Gabriel exhaled hard, glad that he had managed to avoid that one. He headed to the kitchen after Sam and got dinner started for the both of them. He'd have to be careful. He couldn't have Sam finding out, because if Sam did, he'd know everything and leave. And, well. He wasn't ready to give Sam up, just yet.

  
  
~!~

  
  
It wasn't until Christmas that Gabriel knew he was deeper in trouble than he had even realized. He called his elder brother to let him know that he wouldn't be coming home for Christmas, and by the way Sam lit up when he said that he'd be staying, there wasn't any way he could have made a different choice.

  
He got Sam a new laptop and waved away any protests, because he knew Sam needed it and had been worried about how much it was going to cost. It was easy enough to do, especially now. Sam gave him a few video games that had him damn near squealing with glee and a soft, soft, cashmere sweater, green and gold, stitched together. He wanted to glare at Sam, but as he slipped it on, it was the comfiest thing he'd ever owned.

  
"Don't," Sam cleared his throat. "Don't get mad about the cost of that one. I used the joint account card for it."

  
Gabriel gave a happy grin and nearly leaned over to kiss Sam before he remembered that he wasn't allowed to do that, and they weren't really married. They were just two friends doing Christmas together. The reality was enough to wash away almost any of the joy he'd been feeling minutes before. He wanted this to be real. He wanted all of it to be real, and here he was, faking it.

  
"Gabriel?" Sam asked. "I-"

  
A knock at the door sounded and Gabriel raised both eyebrows and looked behind him. "Uh. Hold that thought for two seconds. Who the hell knocks on doors on Christmas?" he asked Sam, padding to it when the knocking came again, harder and insistent this time.

  
He yanked open the door and blinked at the sight of Michael, standing across from him. "M-Michael?"

  
"Is it true?" Michael asked, sweeping into the room, shutting the door behind him. "That you've gotten yourself _married_ , Gabriel? Without telling any of us? You didn't think that we'd notice?"

  
Horror curled, dark and dirty in his stomach as Michael walked across the room, towards where Sam was sitting, frozen, next to their rather modest tree that they'd decorated themselves. "Wait, Michael!"

  
"You!" Michael snarled. "What have you done to him? To make him forget his family, his sense of fiscal responsibility? What did you do to him to make him forget even the most basic of precautions to getting married to a no one like you?"

  
Sam sat, frozen, his eyes darting between Michael and Gabriel. "What, what are you talking about?"

  
Michael threw a pile of papers on the table in front of Sam. "The prenupitual agreement that Gabriel has oh-so-conveniently forgotten to sign! Getting to live with him and spend his money wasn't enough, of course, you just have to wait out the first year and then you get half of his inheri-"

  
"Enough," Gabriel snarled, stalking forward, standing between Michael and Sam. He clenched his hands into fists. "Whatever, whatever the situation between Sam and I is, Michael, it's none of your fucking-"

  
"Sam?" Michael said with a laugh. "Not the Sam Winchester, is it?"

  
Cold dread settled into Gabriel's stomach.

  
"Yes," Sam said, standing up, stopping beside Gabriel. "Not that it is any of your fucking business."

  
Michael snorted and turned to look at Gabriel. "Are you really that pathetic, Gabriel?"

  
"Enough, Michael," Gabriel growled, stepping forward. "Get out, Michael, or I will call and have security remove you."

  
"You find a way to make sure the student you liked, ended up married and living with you? Could you be any more pathetic?"

  
"That," Sam snarled, standing up to his full height, spreading his shoulders so he towered over Michael. "Is. Enough. Get out. Or I will remove you myself."

  
Michael snorted and leaned in closer to Sam, his eyes narrow. "You try to take a dime from him in the divorce, and I'll see to it that you are ruined every single way a person can be."

  
Gabriel watched Michael leave with a cold sort of detachment, jumping when the door slammed behind him. Sam knew. Sam knew everything now. He turned and looked back at the few presents that they hadn't opened yet and knew that it was over. That everything was over.

  
"Was it true?" Sam asked, staring at Gabriel's back. He'd never seen the other man look so small, but his words only served to make Gabriel crumple in on himself further. "Gabriel?"

  
Gabriel sighed. "I had a crush on you the first time I talked to you and you turned those dimples on me. I was a goner. Unfortunately for me, you were as funny as you were hot. I pranked you, you pranked back. We, we became friends," Gabriel whispered. He could feel Sam staring at his back.

  
"Never stopped liking you, though. Couldn't. You're amazing, you know," Gabriel said, glancing at Sam out of the corner of his eye. Sam hadn't moved, didn't look like he was breathing.

  
Gabriel felt a tear slip down his cheek and he was glad that he was facing away from Sam. Now he was going to lose everything. Sam's friendship and his, whatever they had maybe been working their way towards. Everything would be gone and he'd be left alone, again.

  
"So, when everything happened, and I watched you slowly lose hope of a solution that wasn't dropping out of school, I came up with a crazy idea. Marry you. I'd get," Gabriel huffed out a sad laugh and rubbed at his eyes. "You asked me once what I was getting from marrying you. You remember?"

  
Sam didn't answer him. Not that Gabriel expected him to. He closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around his waist.

  
"I love hanging out with you, Sam. I love being with you. I love making you laugh, pulling you away from your work when you need a break. Hell, as much as you eat, I even love feeding you," Gabriel admitted quietly. "I got the chance, to pretend, for a little while, that you wanted to be here too."

  
More silence.

  
Gabriel slumped and the tears were coming harder now, running in tracks down his face, dripping onto his arms. He took a step around the coffee table and flinched when he stepped on some of the paper they'd discarded opening gifts.

  
"I'm sorry Sam. I'm so, so, so sorry," Gabriel whispered. "I'll have the lawyers draft the divorce papers in the morning."

  
"You, you didn't sign the prenup."

  
Gabriel paused, his hand on the doorknob. He didn't turn to look at Sam. "I didn't sign the prenup, because I wanted to make sure you would never have to be in this situation, ever again. That you could do, whatever you wanted to do in life. I didn't sign that prenup, Sam, because I wanted to try to give you a fraction of the happiness you've given me the past few months."

  
He took a shaky breath and told himself that this was it. The second he opened this door, he was sure that he would never see Sam, except at the other end of the table, lawyers between them. "Please, please believe me when I say I'm sorry, Sam. Please."

  
"Do you," Sam cleared his throat, trying to prevent the shaking.

  
Gabriel froze.

  
"Do you know what it's like, to be indebted to someone in a way that you will never be able to pay back? Ever?" Sam asked, stepping closer to Gabriel.

  
"No," Gabriel said, shaking his head. "I don't."

  
"Do you know what it's like to fall in love with that person? This person who has done nothing but give, and give and give, without asking for anything in return?"

  
Gabriel's mind was racing and he kept his hand on the doorknob, but he'd heard that right? Hadn't he? He turned around slowly and was surprised at how close Sam was, almost close enough to touch him. He shook his head. "I don't."

  
Sam smiled sadly. "I have spent the past four months falling in love with you, Gabriel. And I was convinced, because you had married me as a friend, that you would never want anything more."

  
Gabriel's heart stuttered to a stop, then jumped into overdrive, pounding hard against his ribcage. "Sam..."

  
Sam took a deep breath and stepped forward. "We've both fucked up. I didn't, I wasn't willing to talk to you, especially in the beginning. You, you didn't tell me about liking me."

  
Gabriel swallowed hard, staring up at Sam. His heart was trying to jump out of his chest and into Sam's hands. "Yeah," he agreed softly.

  
"But I think, in the spirit of the season," Sam whispered, looking back at the tree. "And especially with the new year right around the corner...maybe, maybe we start over."

  
His breath left him in a whoosh and Gabriel stared up at Sam, wanting to cry, because somehow, somehow, he had managed to not fuck up enough to still have a chance with this absolutely amazing man. "Maybe, maybe not entirely over?" Gabriel offered, instead, pulling back a little.

  
Gabriel held out his hand and grinned. "I'm Gabriel Novak, and I'm a lot in love with you, Sam Winchester." Sam laughed, his face lighting up and Gabriel had never seen anything so beautiful in his entire life.

  
"I'm Sam Winchester," Sam said, taking Gabriel's hand, giving it a slow squeeze. "And I'm a lot in love with you too, Gabriel Novak."

  
Gabriel spent a long, long moment savoring the touch of Sam's hand, and how big it felt before he tugged Sam down and into a kiss. "Merry Christmas, Sam."

  
It was several long, quiet minutes later before Sam asked. "No divorce papers?"

  
Gabriel nodded and pulled Sam into another kiss. "No divorce papers. But maybe some cuddling?"

  
Sam laughed, and Gabriel was never, ever going to get tired of the sight of Sam laughing, his entire face lit up in joy.

  
"Cuddling sounds _great_."   
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Criticisms welcome!
> 
> You can find me here: 
> 
> [Aria-Lerendeair ](http://aria-lerendeair.tumblr.com/)
> 
> You can also watch me write fics like this (and dozens of others) live! Follow me on Livestream for fics, shenanigans and a general all-around awesome time! http://new.livestream.com/accounts/7212317


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